The Imperial Qín Dynasty : Elements of Governance as Reflected in the Lǐyē 里耶 Manuscripts

Abstract

The Lǐyē 里耶 text corpus is one of the basic reference points when it comes to the research of pre-imperial and early imperial documents, and grants unique opportunities to redefine our knowledge about social, legal, political, administrative and ritual responsibilities of the first Chinese empire. This book explores some elements of governance at the southern fringes of the Qín dynasty as reflected in the excavated documents from Lǐyē well J1.